help me decide........................

[cv_acr]

You are 100% right on DLP versus SLA...  DLP ARE the future.

Except on what SLA actually is... SLA is laser printing, not LCD.

"SLA" is getting so misused on model forums to refer to any resin printing that the discussions end up getting confused.

DLP - uses a projector and mirror
SLA - uses a laser and mirror
LCD - uses a UV light source and LCD as a photomask

[robert3985]

Except on what SLA actually is... SLA is laser printing, not LCD.

"SLA" is getting so misused on model forums to refer to any resin printing that the discussions end up getting confused.

DLP - uses a projector and mirror
SLA - uses a laser and mirror
LCD - uses a UV light source and LCD as a photomask

I wasn't sure of the nomenclature since Phrozen calls their machines technology LCD, Anycubic doesn't call it anything, and Elegoo calls their technology MSLA.  I decided to compromise and call it SLA.

In any case, regardless of what the technology is called, the information still stands...

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Chris333]

Stereolithography belongs to a family of additive manufacturing technologies known as vat photopolymerization, commonly known as resin 3D printing. These machines are all built around the same principle, using a light source—a laser or projector—to cure liquid resin into hardened plastic. The main physical differentiation lies in the arrangement of the core components, such as the light source, the build platform, and the resin tank.

laser or projector

...or mirror. All the printers we are talking about here are all SLA printers.

[Lemosteam]

Except on what SLA actually is... SLA is laser printing, not LCD.

"SLA" is getting so misused on model forums to refer to any resin printing that the discussions end up getting confused.

DLP - uses a projector and mirror
SLA - uses a laser and mirror
LCD - uses a UV light source and LCD as a photomask

This list is inaccurate.

The term SLA, from 1984, refers to ANY printing process that uses a layering technique and photopolymerization, and is independent of the light source used to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereolithography

The use of an LCD or DLP are just another a type of SLA, both photopolymerizing the similar types of resins.  It just so happens that the only tech in existence at the time were lasers and mirrors.  The lasers were always reflected back then and were used to "move" the center of the laser along the layer cross section, and then crosshatch inside the section to fuse the new layer to the old.  Then the entire vat would lower and a layer thickness skimmer left the next film atop the last layer for the laser to harden the next cross section. As witnessed on the 3D Systems SLA 500 when I was trained back then.

[cv_acr]

Well, no wonder it's so confusing then, since there's no other term but SLA used to refer to the laser method, while everything else has its own acronym.

[JeffB]

Except on what SLA actually is... SLA is laser printing, not LCD.

"SLA" is getting so misused on model forums to refer to any resin printing that the discussions end up getting confused.

DLP - uses a projector and mirror
SLA - uses a laser and mirror
LCD - uses a UV light source and LCD as a photomask

I got it wrong...  I'll own it.